Leigh MacArthur Photography

Many of you are familiar with a number of applications to display your photography to the masses. Some are photographic centred, while others are not. Some of the photographic centred apps have been purchased and are now run by companies that are not necessarily photo-oriented and have become money driven.

I have been a huge fan of Dayflash since I first learnt about it from an online magazine and ventured over for a look. There have been quite a few articles about the next “Instagram killer” app and naturally I was skeptical. After all, I have lost track of all the supposed IG/FB killers out there only to fade away without a whimper, or accept and embrace the fact that they will never be IG but, hey that’s okay, too, this is where the creatives really hang out and share… I’m looking at you VSCO. 😉

I signed up, thinking at the very least, “Let’s get another portfolio out there to maximize the eyes on my work.” It wasn’t very long before I was sold. The image quality on Dayflash vs. IG, and definitely FB was miles (kilometres) ahead. The other thing that I absolutely loved about Dayflash was that if you were to post a horizontally framed photo with an aspect ration greater than 4:3, it would automatically rotate the photo, so that it filled the entire screen instead of shrinking it to 1/3 the size.

Dayflash tries its best to showcase your photo using the entire screen, or at least as much as possible. There is only one photo per screen. To view the next photo swipe up or down like you would on IG. If you want to like it, simply double tap on the photo, or touch the name at the bottom and a transparent pane shows a like button and a comment button. Compare that to the wasted real estate over at IG for promote buttons, likes, and hashtags.

The other major and wonderful feature of Dayflash that’s under the hood, is that the feed is, and they say – will always be (according to their website) – chronological. There is no algorithm to try to figure out and either play or cheat. You post it when you want and the same number of eyes (which is 100% of the community) have the opportunity to see your work.

The other, albeit somewhat of a selfish pleasure, thing that I love about Dayflash is their hashtag, or keyword system. Despite yours truly’s ability to go on and on here in my blogsphere (do they still use that word?), I am absolutely horrible with my key-wording and hashtags. On Dayflash, hashtags are not supported. How can people find others with similar interests? You enter a limited number of key words on your profile when you sign up. This is nice because you are forced to choose words that best describe your style or photos without the fluff like “#photooftheday” which will allow you to find people who are that much closer to what you are looking for.

They’ve recently added “Collaborations” – a system where you can find another photographer, designer, or model to work on any specific project you might have. They have also released a thing called the “Partner Program” which allows fans to donate or compensate you directly for your work, so that you may continue to do your work. It is currently under invitation only along with some requirements that must be met. They’ve also just released direct messages. The first message that I received was one asking if I would be a Dayflash ambassador. To which after some deliberation, I accepted. (My last venture as an ambassador with another app didn’t go so well. But that’s a rant for another rainy day.)

Here is some of the statistical differences between Dayflash and Instagram from someone who doesn’t have a large following on either. I put this photo up on both roughly around the same time frame. I think Dayflash got a few hours head start. But the numbers are interesting. As of the time of the screenshots, (roughly 2 days later) the view count is 175 – 193 in favour of Instagram. But that is the only category that they can really claim. 
Dayflash: Of the 175 views, it has gotten 57 likes (32.57%). 
Instagram: 193 views and 33 likes (17%)

Instagram has gotten 6 comments 
Dayflash 0 comments 
Of the 6 Instagram comments, 3 are my replies and the other 3 are spread between 2 friends. 
Whereas no one I personally know follows me on Dayflash. 

Instagram says that 36% of the viewers were not following me. I currently have 345 followers, which works out to be about 69 people. 
I have “70+” followers on Dayflash so even at 79 people that would mean that the smallest number of people who don’t follow me that saw the picture would be 96 or 55%. 

This is also on top of Dayflash’s superior photo quality, and the automatic full screen viewing of landscape (horizontal) oriented photos. 

It’s not as simple as it was made to sound, but I did hear a presentation not talking about Dayflash in particular but any new social media outlet where the person said, “It doesn’t matter if the platform will be dead in a year.” Paraphrasing: If that’s where the people are for now that’s where you have to be. Now obviously Instagram is still where most of the people are, but if there’s a much better chance of a wider audience actually seeing my work somewhere else, that’s where I’m going. These days, (and it’s been almost a year) it’s Dayflash, and I’m very proud to be an ambassador.

Sorry Andriod users, at the time of this post, Dayflash is still only available on iOS. Although from what their website is saying, an Android version is on the horizon.

If you do use Dayflash, or have recently signed up. Head on over to @leighmacarthur.